“Vincere” awarded Golden Gladiator in Durres Film Festival

TIRANA, Sept. 7 – Vincere, an Italian-French co-production directed by Marco Bellocchio has been announced the winner of this year’s edition of the Durres film festival. The Italian director was awarded the Golden Gladiator Prize in a ceremony held last Friday in the Roman amphitheatres of Durres, one of the festival’s two venues along with Aleksander Moisiu theatre. In Vincere, the closely guarded story of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s secret lover and son is revealed.
The best director award went to Polish director Lech Majewski for his “The mill and the cross” movie.
Netherlands’ Sergio Hasselbaink grabbed the best actor award while Italy’s Giovanna Mezzogiorno was announced the best actress for her starring role in Vincere.
72 Days by Croatian director Danilo Serbedzija was announced the best Balkan film in the Balkan World category.
The first prize in the Albanian student short film prize went to Fatjon Xhika.
The fourth edition of the festival, held from August 27 to September 2, brought to Durres some of the best European and Balkan recent productions competing for the Golden Gladiator and many other prizes.
This year’s special guest of the festival was Francis Ford Coppola, the famous U.S director who arrived in Durres on August 31. Another special guest at the festival was Italian-Tunisian actress Claudia Cardinale who was honored with a career award. Late Albanian actor Vangjush Furxhi was also honored with a career award on his tenth death anniversary.
The official competition consisted of 8 features selected among the most significant recent productions and 6 features at Balkan World Section.
This year’s special programme was dedicated to Turkish cinema as an example of how a Balkan cinema can grow to reach the universal.
The Albanian cinema was represented with two out of competition movies, the “In the Woods” by Albanian born US based Zenelaj sisters and the “Out of touch” by Andi Deliana, another Albanian director who lives in the U.S.